So Moon, a film made by David Bowie's son and critically mentioned in the same breath as Blade Runner, is in (some) cinemas... Initially I was put off by Sam Rockwell... I never liked his name (it sounds like a 70s porn star), and he had a fist in Choke'spie (a rubbish Chuck Palahniuk adaptation)... but then what about that comparison?
Although it's not clear from the trailer what exactly it is, the Blade Runner connection is definitely there... along with slightly more unexpected ones like The Prestige. Without giving anything away that the trailer doesn't, it also poses a fundamental question; if you met yourself, would you get along? Definitely one to see at the cinema.
Back in 1766 this was scandalous. Painted by Jean-Honore Fragonard as a commission from a French nobleman, it depicts a girl on a swing, allowing a man in the bushes a look up her skirt. At the same time, she is throwing off a shoe to symbolise the loss of virginity, whilst a priest provides the inertia. Cheeky little madam then.
Like many of the best works, it was both vilified for its shocking subject matter, and praised for its technical brilliance... the use of light is cinematic, even by todays finely tuned standards of gloss and finish.
To transpose the technicality and social relevance to a more contemporary setting, it could be said both Gregory Crewdson and David Lachapelle reference aspects of the work... There are definitely echoes of the atmosphere Fragonard created in Crewdson's widescreen work, and both the colour and playfullness/ shock-factor Lachapelle has forged a career from seem to be evident in early form here...
Furthermore, there are even early elements of kitsch; by todays benchmarks at least... not only the shade of pink, but by the cherubs and the overall tone. In fact, Yinka Shonibare worked off this very notion in 2004, with his Turner Prize entry; reinventing the painting sculpturally...
So then, is the painting a pebble that's been creating ripples ever since, or simply an early example of pop-culture defining the boundaries of social taste?
As Muse disappear yet further into the supermassive black hole started by Queen, it's comforting to remember that someone once told them self parody might not be such a bad idea... Back in 2006, they were responsible for at least authorising, if not conceptualising one of the most enjoyable music videos in mainstream pop.
Directed by Joseph Kahn, it seems to tread a similar path to Joss Whedon's Firefly, and is every bit the compact, high-gloss fun music videos can sometimes be. (A much higher-res version can be found at the directors website).
If Apparat isn't everything that's good about electronic music at the moment, he's certainly a reminder that it can be meaningful and emotional. Not the sweaty, pilled-up emotion of Soulwax or Justice, but the heart-string plucking kind; the kind that's usually the preserve of a well scored slice of premium cinema.
He started with Orchestra of Bubbles, a collaboration with Ellen Allien in 2006 that hinted at the human behind the techno beat; placing a subtle question mark over the typically soulless nature of electronic music. Then came the solo Walls in 2007, experimenting with downtempo and providing moments of sheer beauty (Useless Information, Arcadia).
Most recently was the collaboration with Modeselektor; Moderat. Initially I was worried the collaboration might see him straying from this living, breathing roboticism and into the more disposable aspects of his collaborators, but it seems the opposite was the case. What the collaboration brought in repetition and structure seemingly amplified the contrast... the industrial and the mechanical, and the emotive.
A friend recently recounted the following; it was a rainy, artistically productive day, and a group of them were sat smoking weed and drawing. Conditions, as Flight of the Conchords stated, were perfect, my friend put on LP highlight Out of Sight and returned to his drawing. When he looked up, he noticed an Australian, shedding a solitary tear.
If you can find it, there's a deluxe edition of the LP that has a second disk with a visual accompaniment, a sort of minimal series of music videos. Again, a hint at how to progress given the dismal future of albums, music videos and budgets in general.
It's hard to tell whether Above Magazine is new, or just under new management... either way the ambitious concept makes for an interesting first issue; it is an ecological publication with an eye on fashion, art, architecture etc. However, articles like the missing link between fashion and fish offer a unique slant, and it's even developed its own fonts to use less ink.
Apparently people were queueing up to collaborate, and some of the editorial (and commercial) imagery is spectacular (see above, shot of fish is previously featured Trent Parke), but I wonder if this will last beyond the maiden voyage, I get the feeling the concept might have been better suited to a book. Sustainability?
While in Milan, I was lucky enough to finally stand in front of some prints of one of my favourite photo series... Hiroshi Sugimoto's 'Theaters'. Aside from being based on a good, old fashioned, stroke-of-genius photographic concept (the lens is open, and the film exposed for the entire length of the film playing), the images are stunning, especially in the inky forest flesh.
There it is again, that symmetry... yet there is something tense and almost frustrating about this series', especially in print; Sugimoto's symmetry is not quite perfect... As a consequence, there is something post-apocalyptic and Lynchian about the atmosphere, sort of 28 Days Later meets Eraserhead...
I've been away, and missing London... all its cliches and eccentricities, whether genuine or well honed. Take for example, oh I don't know... Shoreditch... just off the top of my head. 'The Glasgow Collective' just ran their final exhibition in the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall, a building I've never cast a second glance at.
The basement, as it turns out is a fantastic space; a matrix of deriliction and adventure. The final graduates from The Glasgow School of Art used it to great effect, named it accordingly for the area, and even produced a free paper to sit indigenously alongside The Stool Pigeon, Loud and Quiet and The P.I.X. in your local Vice pub. It's good to be back. There will be more, more often.
Firstly, apologies to the barely breathing parties for the lack of updates. I've been away with the fairies.
Here's something for you though... a Simian Mobile Disco video. SMD are something of an interesting notion to me, on one hand they were very active during the recent tech-electro boom, but never quite reaching the stratospheres of say Justice. They released some anthems during this period, but at the same time they didn't homogenize their sound, and therefore their appeal in the same way as Digitalism for example.
As those familiar with the history of SMD will know, it is their ability to evolve that has provided them with some longevity without resorting to formula. Both song and video here are testament to a next step. 'Electro' music and the music video concept are currently suffering a troubling period; electro has attempted parallel movements towards disco in the wake of it's over speculative explosion, and the music video is in the process of being over saturated by no-budget concept pieces... you know, the ones with the fingers, people walking on beds on their sides, etc etc etc...
Shrewdly then, we see an example of both being subverted, or progressed perhaps. (This is not the first time they've offered something of a subversion within the video form.) The music is an obvious old-school throwback, but in a somewhat sideward step when compared to their peers. The video takes the no-budget concept, throws it on it's head and reminds us of the fundamental appeal of dance music.
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